Overwhelming support for solar energy in Nevada helped Question 3 pass with more than 70 percent of the vote.

Share

More than 70% of Nevadans voted to take the first step to eliminate electricity monopolies in the state, striking a damaging blow to NV Energy’s longtime desire to hamper the solar industry within its service areas.

Question 3, the constitutional amendment initiative that passed so overwhelmingly, would enshrine Nevadans’ rights to choose their energy provider and generate their own power for resale in the state’s constitution.

Despite overwhelming support for the measure — out of more than a million votes passed, Question 3 received 72.4 percent of the vote — the amendment will not go into effect immediately. It must be voted on by the legislature, which will meet again starting in February 2017 and, if approved, will not go into effect until 2018.

As Nevada law is currently written, utility companies can establish monopolies within their geographic service areas. This arcane system was originally put in place to encourage to encourage electrical-infrastructure development in the Silver State.

Unfortunately, the outdated law has allowed NV Energy currently controls 90 percent of the state’s energy market. With such virtually unlimited power, NV Energy has fought solar energy development tooth-and-nail.

Last December, after significant lobbying by NV Energy, the Nevada Public Utilities Commission (PUCN) dismantled the state’s net-metering policy. Major national solar installers pulled out of the state, leaving customers wondering who would service and care for the arrays they had just installed.

PUCN has since reversed the most egregious aspect of the changes to the policy, by grandfathering more than 30,000 PV system owners under the old rules — but the decision set the solar industry back significantly in the state.

Share

Frank Andorka

Frank Andorka has been writing professionally for nearly 29 years and spent nearly 20 years in trade publications. He was the founding editor of Solar Power World and has covered all aspects of the solar industry from policy to panels and everything in between.

Related

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment

Name *

Email *

Website

Notify me of follow-up comments by email.

Notify me of new posts by email.

By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.

Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.

You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.

Keep up to date

pv magazine USA offers daily updates of the latest photovoltaics news. We also offer comprehensive global coverage of the most important solar markets worldwide. Select one or more editions for targeted, up to date information delivered straight to your inbox.

Email*

Select Edition(s)*

Hold Ctrl or Cmd to select multiple editions.

We send newsletters with the approximate frequency outlined for each edition above, with occasional additional notifications about events and webinars. We measure how often our emails are opened, and which links our readers click. To provide a secure and reliable service, we send our email with MailChimp, which means we store email addresses and analytical data on their servers. You can opt out of our newsletters at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of every mail. For more information please see our Data Protection Policy.

Keep up to date

We send newsletters with the approximate frequency outlined for each edition above, with occasional additional notifications about events and webinars. We measure how often our emails are opened, and which links our readers click. To provide a secure and reliable service, we send our email with MailChimp, which means we store email addresses and analytical data on their servers. You can opt out of our newsletters at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in the footer of every mail. For more information please see our Data Protection Policy.

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.